Saturday, 6 December 2014

Today I am going to be reviewing the Bio Oil (PurCellin Oil). Bio Oil is a special skincare oil that helps improve the appearance of scars, stretch marks and uneven skintone. Bio Oil is also very effective on dry, dehydrated skin and ageing skin.

Bio Oil is formulated with special plant and vitamin extracts, it contains a breakthrough ingredient called PurCellin Oil which makes the oil, light and non-greasy. They recommend to use it twice everyday for 3 months to see results.

I have been using this for about 2 months religiously every night and I honestly have seen a difference in my skin. I have a lot of old acne scars on my cheeks and after using Bio Oil I have seen them lighten over time. I have also started using it on my body for stretch marks and will see how well it performs on that. All I need is one-two drops and I massage it over the face and neck. This bottle will definitely last me years.

This is a product that may or may not work for you and I know a lot of people who have not experienced any difference by using it but that is because everyone's skin is different. I have found Bio Oil has helped my scarring fade away. It is a product that I will continue buying for a long time.

Yes, it does work slowly and you have to wait months to see results but I don't mind that.

You can buy Bio Oil from leading pharamacists like Priceline in Australia and it retails for $ 14.99 for 60ml.

Saturday, 29 November 2014

Today I am going to review some new Australis Products that I bought recently and show you a look I did with them. (PS: Pic Heavy)

The AC❤ME collection came out in stores recently and the most talked about products are the cream shadows. I bought the shades Bronzonce which is a pinky/gold/champagne colour and Plum Diddy which is a reddish/plum/brown. These shadows have a really creamy, mousse like texture and are very pigmented. If applied with a flat shadow brush or your fingers these shadows give a very foiled metal like finish. You could also apply it with a blending/ buffing brush to give a wash of shimmer on the lids. These shadows are not crease resistant. You need to have a good eyeshadow primer if you have oily lids like me. These shadows are available at Priceline or Online for $7.95 each. I highly recommend picking these because they are limited edition and can be used in multiple ways.

Next up is the AC on Tour Highlighting and Contouring kit $16.95. I think every beauty fanatic in Australia has seen or heard about the contour and highlight palette by Australis and I just wanted to share my thoughts with you guys too. This palette contains 6 powders- 3 for contouring/defining and 3 for highlighting. Out of all the six, only one is shimmery and all others are matte. My favourite shade out of all is the yellow powder which I use to set concealer under my eyes. Out of the three contour shades, the middle shade is cool toned and other two are warm toned bronzers. A lot of people say that the contour powders are very muddy and don't blend well. I tend to mix the colours together and a little goes a long way. The shimmery highlight shade is a pink toned highlighter and is not overly sparkly. The last powder is a pink toned all over face powder and is my least used out of all.

In my look above I used Bronzonce all over the lid, Plum Diddy on the outer corners ( I used a blending brush to apply these colours so I get a very soft wash of colour rather than an intense look) and used the first contour shade from the palette in the crease. Highlighted my browbone and inner corners using the shimmery highlight shade from the palette. For liner I used my Maybelline Master Precise liner and mascara is the Australis Twista Sister mascara. Contoured and highlighted my face using the AC on Tour palette. For the lips I lined my lips using the Australis Lip Pencil in Hot to Trot and filled them in with the same pencil. To give the look a little more oomph I used the Social Eyes Lashes in Dazzle.

You can purchase Australis products from Big W, Priceline and Online. Social Eyes Lashes can be bought online from here.

Have you tried the new cream shadows and the contour/highlight palette by Australis?

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

Recently I was contacted by Luk Beautiful if I wanted to try their lipstick line called Lip Nourish. I immediately jumped to the opportunity because I love lip products and I had heard nothing but good things about them. Today I am going to review the Orange and Juniper Lip Nourish.

“Cindy Luken is an accomplished entrepreneur, food scientist, beautifood chef, former biscuit baker (remember Luken & May?) and mother of 2 little ones. She believes that beautiful clean food is the secret to happiness and attributes her accomplishments in business to eating well and ensuring she balances ‘work life’. She continues to follow her mantra “live the life you love” by creating the boutique beauty business luk beautifood: an inspiring online destination selling 100% natural sheer colour lipsticks made from skin food. Her Beauty Kitchen provides a motivating recipe to nourish your beauty by making the connection between FOOD, BEAUTY & LIFE to inspire and help women feel.look.be delicious… inside and out.”

"I have been a lifelong advocate of healthy eating and living. Food has been my world from cooking as a child & studying food science and nutrition at uni to cooking for one of Australia’s pioneering caterers and building a biscuit empire.Through a friend I was introduced to the beauty industry and became concerned about what put on our skin – chemicals, and the lack of health involved in the nourishment of our skin. So many women got the connection between eating for health and beauty but they were yet to make the connection with ‘feeding’ your skin from the outside in. Armed with my qualifications and experience with new product development (in the lab at Sara Lee + creation of 80+ biscuit lines for Luken & May, my first $5m+ T/O biz) I set up a test kitchen at home and started experimenting with lip stick formulations. It was a ‘no-brainer’ that lippies could be made from food. I scoped out the product, found packaging, an eco designer and world class manufacturer in Melbourne…a path that took 4+ years from concept to launch."

Made with a 100% natural ingredients I received the shade Dusky Pink which is made out of Orange and Juniper oils. These Lip Nourishes are a cross between lipbalms and lipsticks made to fight dry lips while providing colour and shine. They are cruelty free, gluten free and 100% natural. Rich in antioxidants and omega3 + 6 essential fatty acids, these lip nourishes keep lips smooth, with an edible recipe.

Housed in a matte white, thin tube this lipstick first of all smells delicious. Although I did expect a lot more pigmentation looking at the lipstick bullet, I don't mind it much. I use this as a tinted lipbalm to revive my lips throughout the day or when I don't want to wear any makeup but still have something on my lips so they don't dry out. Sometimes I use this over an existing lipstick to give it some shine and plumpness. While using this I don't have to worry about licking it off because it is not going to do any harm to my body.

It retails for $24.95 each and comes in a variety of colours and flavours. You can also buy a tasting plate with little samples of all the colours. Luk Beautiful also make other makeup items such as foundations, mascara, powder etc but I haven't tried those out yet.

For Christmas there is a pack of all 7 Lip Nourishes on sale for $99 (originally $199) so if you are looking for a gift this is a great idea. You can purchase these from here and they also do free shipping in Australia and Free International shipping over $49.95.

I honestly use a wide variety of makeup products and try to use as much naturally derived products as posible but if you are some one who is allergic to chemicals or is gluten free for example I would highly recommend you to try out this brand.

Have you tried these Lip Nourishes before? What do you think about them?

Saturday, 22 November 2014

Dolon from Pout Pretty and I decided to do a makeup swap where I sent her makeup products from Australia that she can't get her hands on and she sent me products from India which I cannot buy here. It was fun selecting and buying products for her as she has very similar taste in makeup and I could buy her products I loved. We set a budget and time frame to send each others products. It was like Christmas in September.

I received the package recently and it was exciting opening it up and looking at all these new makeup goodies I haven't tried before.

Friday, 21 November 2014

Sometime ago I won a competition on Instagram held by Eye Of Horus when they were releasing their brand new Scarab Sapphire eyeliner. I thought that I only won the pencil eyeliner but when I recieved my package I was pleasently surprised.

My prize pack contained the Scarab Sapphire eyeliner, The Goddess Mascara( The wand is amazing!!), Liquid define pen liner and a cute sharpener, all nicely packed in a gold and clear makeup bag.

The Scarab Sapphire kohl pencil (RRP $30) is the creamiest kohl pencil I have tried till date. It is a deep royal blue colour. Also once it is on it does not budge whatsoever. You need a really good oil based makeup remover to take it off. It lasted on my waterline all day long. The pencil also has a smudger on one end. I don't tend to use such smudgers for hygiene reasons since I can't keep it clean but it is really handy to have when your on the go and don't want to carry extra products.

The Goddess Mascara (RRP $34.95) is made with natural waxes and oils which makes it very long wearing. Very few mascaras do not flake off on me and this is one of them. What I loved most about this mascara is the brush. I love plastic bristle brushes and this one is densly packed. It gives me the right amount of volume and length without clumping.

The Liquid Define (RRP $30) eyeliner is a pen like eyeliner with a very fine tip. I found the tip to be a tiny bit thicker than the Maybelline Master Precise but very easy to use and budge free. I could wear this eyeliner to the pool and will not have any smudging or bleeding at all.

I am honestly very impressed by these products by Eye Of Horus and from the packaging to the actual product the quality is remarkable. EOH is also a company that does not test on animals, has naturally derived ingredients and is paraben free. I love the whole egyptian concept of the brand and I 100% recommend you to try their Kohl Pencils. They have a wide variety of colours ranging from the basic black to greens, blues and purple.

Also if your looking for a mascara for sensitive eyes The Goddess Mascara is formulated without any parabens or nasties and won't irritate your eyes ( not to mention the wand is ah-mazing!!!)

You could purchase EOH products online or visit the website for authorized retailers in your area (currently selling at 640 stores all over Australia).

Have you tried any Eye of Horus products before? Which one is your favorite?

Wednesday, 19 November 2014

As all of you know the Holiday season has started and like every year all brands release their special limited edition holiday products and this year was no exception. Out of all the brands my most awaited collection was by MAC and when they had their collection out online I rushed and purchased a few things. Now those who follow me on Instagram may know that they messed up my order and sent me an empty box for the lipstick that I paid for and when I contacted them they said they were out of stock and told me to choose something else. I found this very annoying as I only wanted that shade of lipstick. Luckily my local MAC store had it in stock and I purchased it in-store while opting for a refund from the online store. Anyways now onto the products. (keep reading after the jump)

First of all lets talk about the packaging. This year MAC's theme was Victorian heirloom inspired and hence the packaging was glossy black with silver glitter specks. The actual products and their boxes had the special packaging making it very hard for me to throw away the boxes (Yes, I hoard limited edition packaging).

The Heirloom Mix collection in particular had lipsticks, mineralize blushes, eye liners, fluidlines, lip glosses, nail polishes, mini pressed pigments and glitters. I did wish I could buy everything out of the collection but unfortunately I don't think I could afford all of it.

Anyways back to the products I picked. The mineralize blush in Sweet Sentiment RRP $47 is a satin rosy pink blush. This was on top of my list and is my first Mineralize blush from MAC. It is a little powdery but I love the colour and the natural flush it gives to my cheeks. It is a buildable blush and will show up on light to medium dark skintones. Very dark skintones may not be able to pull this off and it may look quite ashy on them.

Next up are the Mini Pressed Pigments in Victorian Plum and Enchantment RRP $36 each. Victorian Plum is a dark plum with violet, purple and blue sparkles and Enchantment is a dark navy blue with blue, green and purple sparkles. I found the texture of both these shades very hard and quite sheer, you need a lot of product to build up the colour or use it wet. Nonetheless I still love the colours and can't wait to do smokey eye looks with them.

Last but not the least, the item that makes me love as well as hate MAC, the matte lipstick in No Faux Pas RRP $38. Described as a hot pink, this lipstick is a bright fuschia with a semi matte finish. It reminds me of colours like Girl About Town (Amplified) from the permanent range and Pleasure Bomb (Matte) from the Riri Hearts Mac collection.

Overall I love each and every product I picked from this collection and I may go back for more (you never know).

Did you pick up anything from the Limited Edition Heirloom Mix Collection by MAC?

Tuesday, 18 November 2014

First of all, I would like to apologize for my disappearance from the blogosphere. I was working full time plus had joined a makeup course. It was taking up all my time and even though I enjoyed it all I did miss blogging. Now I am back and I assure you I am here to stay.

Today I am going to review the Decléor Aroma Confort Moisturising Body Milk. I received this product a few months ago and I thoroughly enjoyed using this product.

Decléor System Corps contains Coconut Oil, Vitamin D, Plant Glycoprotein, and moisturising agents to thoroughly nourish skin, while retaining a lightweight lotion lotion texture which is absorbed quickly into the skin. This must-have body moisturiser envelops your skin in a comforting and protective layer of moisture. It not only re-hydrates the skin, but improves skin elasticity and firmness enhancing the overall appearance of your skin. With its light texture, it hydrates and softens the skin's surface layers to give the skin a velvety smoothness. The body regains energised and revitalised skin. Suitable for all skin types.

What I love about this product is that it is a lightweight milky lotion that absorbs into the skin instantly. It also has a light pleasant scent that is not overpowering. Even though it is creamy, it doesn't leave any sticky residue on the skin. Formulated without parabens, this moisturizer is suitable to use in winter and summer.

I generally use this every morning after a shower and apply it all over my body, particularly concentrating in dry areas such as elbows, knees and my hands. Since it doesn't leave a residue I can get dressed immediately. With continuous use I found my body felt and looked hydrated. I only have a few uses left now but this is a product that I will purchase and recommend to any one who is looking for a light weight body moisturizer.

You can purchase Decléor products from Facial Co here in Australia. This product retails for $55 and can be purchased here.